With offshore boating and sports fishing becoming more and more popular, the problem of daily living on such vessels has presented a problem with trash disposal. It is not unusual for pleasure boats, and commercial and sports fishing boats, to remain offshore for several days without trash removal. Typically trash is packed in plastic bags and thrown in the engine compartment. However, large amounts of trash are produced on such boats making trash storage in the engine compartment unsafe and inconvenient when trying to work in the engine compartment. Kitchen trash compactors are not suitable onboard such boats because of inadequate capacity and the requirement of electrical power which is sometimes not only inconvenient, but unsafe in boat applications. In particular, sparks from electrical switching needed on the conventional trash compactor are dangerous in a boat environment. Domestic trash compactors are typically gear driven and noisy.
Hydraulic trash compactors are known which do not require conventional electrical power, but these units are typically too large and too cumbersome for vessel use. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,701,832 discloses a trash compactor for high traffic public areas having hydraulic means to compact trash. U.S. Pat. No. 6,640,701 discloses a trash compactor for use on a passenger transportation vehicle having a liquid drain for draining compressed liquids from containers during the process. U.S. Pat. No. 6,035,776 discloses a refuse and grinding system for use on a vessel or offshore platform using a hydraulic or compressed air compactor. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,465,660 and 5,490,455 disclose aircraft trash compactors using electrical power. U.S. Pat. No. 4,620,479 discloses a hydraulic, aircraft trash compactor enclosed in a housing wherein hydraulic pump is enclosed in the housing also.
Generally, the prior art has not provided a trash compactor assembly having adequate capacity and safety, yet may be used in a relatively small space on board a boat or vessel.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a trash compactor for a transport vehicle, such as a pleasure boat, sport fishing boat, or commercial fishing boat, and the like, which may be located in the galley or other location on board the boat conveniently accessible by passengers in a minimum space and which is safe and effective in handling the large amounts of trash produced on such vessels.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a hydraulic trash compactor for a pleasure, sports fishing, and/or commercial fishing boat having a split trash compacting assembly and fluid actuating assembly disposed in separate locations so that the trash compacting assembly may have a large capacity in a small space.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a split trash compacting system wherein AC electrical power is not required and only a low voltage control switch is necessary for operating the compactor to avoid the dangers of high voltage sparks and the like.